SERVICE NSW
Doing our part for people in need
Providing access to online grants for customers that need it most
The NSW State Government provides support for people and businesses affected by a natural disaster. Service NSW has been the main conduit for residents to access and apply for grants, where over 5 million grants have been provided to residents and over $12 billion in grants funded. Unfortunately, not all grants and rebates are built the same. This case-study dives into the user-centric approach to how Service NSW will provide grants and rebates to customers from now and into the future.
My objectives for this initiative were:
- help the Grants Team understand the value MyNSW Account (web) can provide customers applying for grants
- advocate for MyNSW Account to be the SSOT for users wanting to search, apply and manage grants
- provide an end-to-end product solution based on requirements
- create a viable solution that can be scalable for future grants.
Responsibility
- Integration strategy (MyAccount)
- Stakeholder management (6 teams)
- Design strategy
- Product design (end to end)
- Holistic user experience
- GEL & Accessibility compliance
successful applications
in grants funded
customer support tickets
*Totals across all grants and rebates, provided to NSW residents from 2020 – 2023
What would typically take Service NSW up to 6 months to release a grant to the public – has now been reduced to under 2 weeks… this is a monumental reduction in effort and resources to get funds to residents in need.
FINAL SOLUTION /
Solving grants for now and the future
Grants to public in record time
First of its kind, online application and management tool for government grants – released in under 2 weeks… down from 6 months.
The Service NSW Bushfire relief grant, was created to service customers in the event of a natural disaster and was also built to, Agile Methodology and forward thinking – to minimise resources and time to release.
Single source of truth
Exploring opportunities to increase the awareness of the Bushfire Grant and Natural Disaster financial support, making it more easy for customers to access and apply.
Providing residents a single, trusted source to find benefits that are relevant to them and their circumstance. Making it easy to find, apply and manage grants from the logged in MySerice NSW experience.
Stay in the know
The solution involved 6 teams across multiple agencies and was the first service of its kind to ever use this level of end-to-end communication across multiple channels (app, web, customer centre and Frontline staff).
For applicants on the go, notifications are sent in multiple formats including app notifications and emails, ensuring constant communication on any updates.
Step by step progress
Call to actions can now be provided at scale, giving customers options to perform tasks at any time in the process e.g. save & resume, apply again, withdraw etc.
Presented in real-time, giving customers easy access to their application status, visibility of their progress and what to expect – reducing anxiety and acting as a reference tool.
Power to the people
Application processes can now be provided at scale, giving customers options to perform application tasks at any time without having to contact support.
“Save and resume”, means applicants don’t need to restart the process if their application is paused or interrupted. While tasks like “Edit bank details”, “Withdraw”, “Add documents” etc. were once managed by support staff, are functions now housed in scalable components in MyAccount.
How I got there…
PROBLEM DEFINITION /
Made for victims of trauma
The NSW Bushfire Relief Grant was developed with the help of impacted individuals that share their experience behind the front lines of a disaster impacted area.
Understanding customers, gaining empathy for their situation and surfacing pain-points within our current grant, contributed to creating a service that was user-centric and can be used to ease pressure on users under difficult circumstances.
Customers that faced traumatic circumstances like floods or bushfires, found it hard to source documents or information, difficulty in sourcing reliable internet while some unfortunately lost their possessions (sometimes their homes) – resulting in multiple errors and the inability to apply for government grants.
20%
Application error rate for a disaster or trauma related grants
0.22%
Application error rate for Pre-IVF rebate
0.41%
Application error rate for Toll Relief rebate
Issues identified
advocating for lean UX & agile methodology at ServiceNSW was why I joined the public sector in the first place. I just want to build cool things for residents of NSW…
SOLVING THE PROBLEM /
A human centred design experience
Leaning heavily on insights from NSW residents in impacted areas and frontline support staff, we were able to provide a scalable solution, for any resident circumstance and type of grant or rebate.
KEY TO SUCCESS /
Research was collated and presented to a dedicated “task-force” including engineers, product managers, SME’s, content designers, data scientists and designers during a 2-day design sprint. The desired outcome was to create plausible, “viable” solutions that could be used to solve the issues identified by customers in discovery.
From the sprint we were able to define the following solutions to solve issues for customers using existing technology and features.
SOLUTION /
A bright future ahead
First of its kind, online application and management tool for government grants – released in under 2 weeks…
My involvement with the NSW Bushfire Relief Grant, was to ensure the end to end delivery of the application and management of the grant within the logged in state (MyService NSW Account), including creation of design assets, testing screens with customers and working with engineers to deliver on time.
The Service NSW Bushfire relief grant, was created to service customers in the event of a natural disaster and was also built to scale for future use, using Lean Methodology and forward thinking – to minimise resources and time to release. This was tested recently in the Far West NSW power outage (17 October 2024) where a typical grant would take 6 months on average to release was provided to customers within 2 weeks of the incident.
Final designs were tested again with residents from impacted areas for final revisions and iterations. The overall responce was overwhelmingly positive, validating our process, solution and designs.
SUMMARY /
Key decisions
1.
Vouch for addition of Grants tracking to MySNW Web Account & MyNSW App (not just emails) as users can check this anytime, anywhere and do not have to try to log into emails for updates.
2.
Advocate for regular cadence meetings, workshops, updates with stakeholders to hold teams (team members) accountable. Make them feel like part of the initiative by creating specific “task forces” to get jobs done. This initiative felt more like a stakeholder management challenge.
3.
Use existing back-end technology by recycling and re-using the SNSW Vouchers program. This did provide restrictions on design, but saved months in development while also meeting the needs of providing efficient, scalable reproduction of grants for the future.